The case of the kidnapping, robbery and death of Eranukhi Pehlivanian started from the third attempt in the court in Ruse
The blood of BGN 500 thousand and the recovered BGN 65 thousand from the robbery of Eranuhi Pehlivanian will be donated to charity. This was announced by the lawyer of her family, Ventsislav Velikov, at the first hearing in the case of the woman’s murder in Ruse. He represents her husband, the former municipal councilor in the Danube town of Bedros, and their son Rafi.
The 57-year-old pharmacy owner was killed on January 11 of this year. The case was brought to court last year, but was postponed twice.
The first time, juror Marian Dimitrov recused himself because of his acquaintance with the Pehlivanian family and because of the illness of a judge from the panel.
At the hearing on Monday, the two accused – Mihail Mihov and Garabed Verinyan pleaded not guilty.
They are charged with 3 crimes – for kidnapping, for robbery of about 65 thousand levs and in euros, and for intentional murder in order to cover up the other two crimes.
If convicted, they could face 15 to 20 years in prison, life in prison and life in prison without parole.
Lawyers for the two men agreed not to question some of the witnesses. Thus, their testimony in the pre-trial proceedings is accepted as true. Only five will be questioned, as will all experts. The substantive trial will begin on February 7. Both defendants try to make the other guilty.
Eranukhi Pehlivanian was a respected businesswoman in Ruse. Probably because of her successful business, she became the object of robbery. According to the indictment, the two accused followed her for about a month before abducting and killing her on January 11, 2022.
According to the prosecutor’s office, she was first approached by Mihail Mihov, who introduced himself as a policeman and wore a uniform. He asked for the woman’s identity card, even handcuffed her. Then he took BGN 20,000 from Eranuhi Pehlivanian. Then, the prosecution claims, Mihov forced the woman to get into Garabed Verinyan’s car.
The two drove Pehlivanyan to her home because they knew there was more money there. They forced her to give them a total of 45,000 BGN. Their original plan was just to rob her.
However, they were worried that Eranukhi managed to see them up close. She heard their voices. The woman also managed to see the car in which she was moved to the outskirts of Ruse. So they decided to suffocate her. Being worried, they returned the next day and dismembered the corpse. The parts of it were thrown in the outskirts of one of the villages about 30 km from Ruse in the Ruse River.
However, despite attempts to escape, the two were quickly apprehended and have been in custody ever since.
Two months after the murder, Bedros Pehlivanyan left the municipal council in Ruse without announcing the reasons. He was the chairman of the GERB group.
